life's a.....

• - Summer's here, so where's the beech - a top three BEST beeches for the Hamilton area..as compiled by..ME... the criterium VAST - too many

I Like L. ONTARIO but the Burlington side of the Skyway - there's more sand - It's less populated - and has a fun little grassy barrier between the parking and the water (make's for a feeling of seclusion)

Christie's has a fun little beach - sure the sand is more a dirt, gravil mix and the grass beyond it looked like it was cut by a dull sythe (in less then 30 mins)

Best rems for bug bites

There's a mosquito a minute up north this year..  - I have been bittin - Oh...I have been bittin...

Upper Gluttyeous Maximis (first of all - it's not attractive when your scratching at that area..and secondly, It's hard to get at if you're not sporting the elastic wastebands)

the wrist and the shinsare bad too...these worse places on the human body to feel the itch... BUT a bite is bad anywhere ....with that - I did SOME research on ways to ease the itch..

Best BUG bite remedies...

Don

Ipsos Reed pole finding the Maple Leaf .. OUR Nations most recognizable symbol.... It's on the flag and Maple syrop cans...the penny, and, this time of year has about HALF and ISLE devoted to it AT ZELLERS.....

YEAH...Had to be the Maple Leaf,

couldn't be the Queen, or Geese...

The MAPLE leaf is harmless and always welcoming.. The Queen (we DO have our anti Monarch Faction in this country..and IT's other Countries find our Geese to be a cool looking bird.. here, we avoid them..because where there is Canadian Geese, there is Canadian Geese Poop...

JeeeSusss Get errr DOWN

Here's the councilors who voted to buy the Lister Block last night:

Here's who didn't want the deal.

Here's the problem:  The Present

 owners HI-RISE Developments and LIUNA Said they would be building two seniors towers as a second phase:  ITS why council jumped on the purchase: 

BUT wisely THIS Time... Council has a condition.. 

OK... We, the PEOPLE will spend 25 Million for the Lister

BUT you gotta come through with these Seniors Towers...We want a MILLION Dollars if they don't generate 600 thousand in taxes...

Preserving Life

How about this wellend guy who somehow fell off his sail boat and had to swim 13 hours to the Portcolburn shore...

Somebody asked him what THAT was like..  he said "It sucked"

The thought of his wife and kids kept him going...  he's 47, and an experienced sailor..  so much so - he thought he didn't need a life jacket...

     Please:  If NOT for the wife and kids... for the search and rescue folks, or that cop that has to make the call...  Wear the Life Preserver 

Cat catches

NEW Cats that should make the team...

DT:  Byron Tinker - We Are Marshell... He was Marshell (for 4 years and 108 tackles)

WR: Scott Mitchell, Made some great catches, then runs in the 2^nd half - plus his chances of making the team are better because the President must really like him

WR: Eddie Cohen, born in Hilton head North Carolina (so I'll bet he can golf too

WR: Will-He Ponder.. played OK - From a stadium announcer perspective - It's be great if he made the squad... just fun to say Will-He Ponder.. If he doesn't make the Cats, he could be a race horse...

read..ing

Great news about improvements in literacy testing IN Hamilton schools.   I participated in the popular Literacy night a the inner cities Queen Mary School last week.   Priciple Valiser called me into his office (which even today scares the hell out of me) and told about, what expected to BE a major change for the better, at his school in the last three years...

     Some VERY innovative, creative initatives to INGAGE the Queen Mary kids.. I was one.  Who would (in the seventies - get hauled into the priciples office for reading comic books in class - now - 3 decades later - they encourage the use of comic books to promote reading...

Help out anyway

Yesterday OUR Brent reporting on a couple of hoods with a road - side scam that saw one unsuspecting driver stop to help, what look like a guy next to his stranded car.

The good simariton gets out to help - when he does.. out pops another hood who proceeds to rob the guys wallet and steel hiw car - leaving him standing on the shoulder watching two cars fly off...

DON"T let this prevent you from helping someoner out in the future - that way the hoods steel something more then a material thing or two.

j

The third biggest sporting event in the world started over the weekend... the Euro 2008 soccer tournament counts only the Olympics and the World Cup of Soccer as being bigger... which just gives you an idea of how big soccer really is.... You hit James Street North later today.. or Sherman Barton area..

GROUP C Action: Dutch squaring off against the Italians...  then, Romainia plays France.

      Love the comintating in soccer, in particular the very popular Euro-cup, pitting the worlds top countries in tenacious matches... pride on the line..  and millions in indorsements..  GOALLLLLLLL

blogbloglookout!!!

Driving through that CRAZY storm last night along the Lakeshore..  From Brant Street then along Eastport Drive.... All around me, mayham.. the winds hurling lawn furnature into the harbour.. Squished Gulls every 20 yards or so along Eastport.. poor things trying to perch on the shoulder, looking for FLYING fish.. And the lightning storm to the left.. As if Old Lake Ontario was home to an evil Sorcerer, ready to vent.. 

And inside the car...

The wife and boy are singing if IF your happy and YOU KNOW it clap your HANDS....

Come on daddy.. 

How do you deal with a problem like exteme heat

HOT WEATHER>>>>

How do you solve a problem LIKE the FIRST BIG Heatwave.. how to save YOUR gas...

First, to better understand the MORE Severe elements..

The City has 3 levels when it comes to advising us, warning us, or alerting us about the weather..

Depending on conditions Health Office will choose one of the three levels:  Advisory, Warning, Alert... The ladder being the most severe...  Today..  They've called it a HEAT ADVISORY

        Least severe BUT should be taken seriously.. I mean How often do we hear from the Health Department?  Mosquito Larvee, Hand washing...  and this

Go BUZZ

GM workers STIFFED big-time - After a Government negotiated deal for the plant to stay in GM - NO CLOSURES, that was the deal - when some heafty concessions were made last time at the table...   and it's as if GM had the IPOD turned up too loud..  din't hear that part..

Closing the truck PLANT,

At the bargaining table NOT LONG AGO - "ok ok.. no raises, cut a little on the bennifit side - just garrentee you won't CLOSE DOWN ANY PLANTS..."

"Yep.. we'll hose down PLANTS..

"Sure.. we garrentee to pose in clown pants"

tims

BLOGBLOGBLOG... 

It doesn't get better then the Tim Horton's that started it all..

I spent an hour with my good friends at the Ottawa North Tim's, the one where Ron Joyce actually got dirty building from sctratch..

What would become a dynasty in donuts.. and, of course coffee.. 

We sold a lot of coffee yesterday - and took every penny from the coffee jar, gave it to the Tims Foundation..  so we can send some 13 thousand kids to camp.

At one point we started the world shorted auction for an autographed copy of Store #1, a novella describing a 48 hour book writing marothon at that Tims..

No Trivial Tritt matter

Still waiting on the outcome of Tritt's  $10 million lawsuit against Category 5 Records,

In December, he used a quarter and called his attorney...  suing

the label that released his latest album, The Storm, in August.

Tritt alleges.. Category 5 and label president and CEO Ray Termini misrepresented the company's financial resources and expertise and denied him creative control over his recordings.      This guy Termini is SLASH was CEO of Bankruptsy Claiment..Haven Healthcare Nursing Home, Generally don't hear of Nursing Homes going BUST - It's a BOOM industry..  so what gives there??? well The attorney general's actually looking at

blogblogblog Catscatscats

June is here - Welcome to CAT month..  My wife loved Cats.. I inherited TWO when we hooked up..

I don't mind the one so much, MANUE, the timid Tortess Shell.. Timid until another cat invades her territory - then you need the African Lion Safari's best ten to coral her

My wife points out...They don't slobber like Dogs or myself

AND (what I gathered) ...If you don't like guests..it's amazing how many people can't visit your home because they're allergic

(Director buddy needed to crash in my rec-room last summer...

Great things

blogblogblog

Good Shepard Women Services made 50 grand and thanksed the golfers for swinging a club and making a difference...This went down at Heron Point - For a golf course that claims more balls then any other in Ontario - Didn't get a lot of my Pro-vees...  Probably because I put away the good balls for the day...  every time I went in the long grass to find a pinnacle, I came out with a pro-staff..and a Nike...  So I was ahead... That said - so are the women and kids the good Shepard care for, rehabilitate, and inspire to get back into control of their lives..now if they can only help me with my slice

Fight!!!!!!!!!

Blogblogblog

Cameron Motorsports complex hosts a Ball Hockey League, where cops want answers from one game... 

At this Ball Hockey game

A bench clearing brawl..

THIS we know:  It was a play-off game.. it ended.. someone took a slap-shot to the back of another player.. benches clear

Here's the ugly part.. first of all, you're not on skates.. so planting for the jab in the brawl's a lot easier.. so why did one guy feel he needed to take his hockey stick to the back of another guy..  then kick the guy in the head when he was down..

Just a test

Emergency Preparedness Exercise

This morning     there will be a large-scale emergency preparedness exercise in the City.  The exercise will be facilitated by the Hamilton Police Service in cooperation with numerous community and law enforcement agencies.

All of the agencies involved are committed to ensuring that the exercise is carried out while maintaining the highest regard for public and participant safety.  The exercise scenario is unique and believed to be the first of its kind ever conducted in Hamilton.

hey where's the fish

Finding a fishing hole for me and the boy is proving to be tougher then I thought...

Guess there are some things YOU can't google...

Specifically - I'm looking for a stocked pond.   Looking for a little catch and release action LOCALLY.

Heard about something of 6.  Know of one round' Freelton way.  And have a nabuur who fishes a stocked trout pond near JORDEN...  BUT I have no specifics..  no names, or rural routes.

Wich means NO fish.

So... Because, later this afternoon - I planned on goin' fishn' with my boy Jake.  I'm appealing to you now...  Where can I find I fishn' hole (stocked pond)

Home Computing

The Farr's are finally getting a home computor.  Yes, I know what you're saying to your home computor..  "what???  You never had a home computor???"

NO.. not really.  Way back in the 90's, yes.  But only for a few months.  The problem.  It had problems.  Paid a lot for a machine that burned like a Plastimet plant before we got our money's worth.

I'm not a nerdy techy fix-it dude.  Never was... likely never will be.  I learn as I go.  And only what is necessary.  I always go Real over Virtual, and never have foud a good chair.  You know, one that doesn't hurt your back after six straight hours of on-line poker?

Single's Scene for Twain

Shania and Mutt are NO more - No comment on the split BUT, could be Twain JUST woke up one day and said... "oh my god.. I married Jacob Marley of the Holiday Classic, A Christmas Carol"

So.. one of the hottest hottest acts in the history of the world is NOW dating...

Thinking of courting the Timmons girl? 

Well, that's the first thing you should keep in mind - You can take the GIRL out of Timmons BUT not the Timmoms out of the GIRL...

So, your first date... Donuts and smokes.

Buying Shania a gift?? Get her perfume - want the relationship to move forward?  Buy her Shania Starlight by Stetson

The dirt road

blog blog blog

the Flyers are finding out how the Habs felt...

Down 3 to OH MY GOD!!!  To the seemling unstoppable Pitsburg Piguins..  Those Pesky Peguins not only gave Adam West's Batman a good going over...

BUT, Malkin and Crosby and the HARD Hitting, Fast Skating Peguins of the Pit variety are ringing Philly's Liberty bell.

          Somewhere Burt Ward shouting  Holy HURTN" Batman.. The Peguins fancy footwork frightening those forlorn flyer fans

TIPS on fillin Tank

BLOG BLOG BLOG>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

YOU NEED to get all you can from your PUMP....  So...

Tips on Gas Pumping

FROM    Kinder Morgan Pipeline ...San Jose, CA 

Only buy or fill up your car or truck in the early morning when the ground temperature is still cold. all service stations have their storage tanks buried below ground. The colder the ground the more dense the gasoline, when it gets warmer gasoline expands, so buying in the afternoon or in the evening....your gallon is not exactly a gallon. In the petroleum business, the specific gravity and the temperature of the gasoline, diesel and jet fuel, ethanol and other petroleum products plays an important role.  A 1-degree rise in temperature is a big deal for this business. But the service stations do not have temperature compensation at the pumps.    

Dirty business

Hello BLOG fan(s) - Thought I would share an annanova.com story from the UK with you.  Do you share a computor - like me - here in the studio....  well  get this..... 

Keyboards 'dirtier than toilet seat' get this Study from the people who conduct studies IN the UK

Some computer keyboards carry more harmful bacteria than a toilet seat

tests at a London office found equipment carrying bugs that could cause food poisoning.

Out of 33 keyboards swabbed, four were regarded as a potential health hazard and one harboured five times more germs than one of the office's toilet seats. (which were also swabbed..obviously)

Jay the game show guy

Love game shows - JOIN me for the Rotarian GAME show night - this Saturday NIGHT

for details call 905 522 1121 and speak with Dianne Pearson 

You from Flamborough?

Looking to have a PUBLIC word with Mayor FRED?

Wondering how that might be possible?  What with his schedule,

BUSY guy... sometime the taxpayer living Ol' Brock Road feels a little out of the City Hall Loop...

Well.. just call Mayor Fred - TONIGHT..

Cable 14's Hamilton Hotline has Fred for a whole hour.. and I had a word with the shows producer yesterday - he like's captivating point counterpoint type television:  So...  he really wants you to get the studio phone's sounding like a flamborough slot just went JACK-pot.

State

State of the Franchise nite - a real Black and Gold Football love fest.

We had 1200 strong at the Convention Center.   I Sang to open the bash...  the reviews are in - NOT really reviewing.

Ken Peter's of the Hamilton Spectator writes:

              READ

Thanks Ken - He could of given me a Star Weekly bend...   Farr was clearly out of place as a wanna-be crooner and looked like a Peguin who just returned from a swim through an oil spill in his rented tux

moving on

this morning... I sent this email to the manager of my men's slow-pitch team.  A team I played for for more then two decades.

Well - It's the end of an era

Guys,

It with great sadness, and tremendous regret, that I repectfully decline a roster positition with the Lakeport Royals.

This decision, by myself and my family, does not come easy.  After careful diliberation and thoughtful consideration, I have chosen to take on a full-time pitching option with the Brew Jays of Burlington Men's B-Division Slow-Pitch League.

seniors golf

Seniors who crave recreation -non contact... no Padding required.

Southbrooke Golf in Binbrook...

There's this league of 100 plus - growing stronger.

Playing out of the asethically pleasing and HISTORIC track out back of Bingbrook.  

Southbrooke is one of the mature courses...  fun golf - as apposed to the un-nerving I paid 120.00 to loose golf balls in the ruff...

This league for retired guys goes Mondays - a lot of them retired edjucaters, one guy who used to sell smokes, another who hits em straight but NOT too far.. and 98 other's out just relaxing, playing the game the way the Scottish shep herder intended...   and it's cheap - I think 40 bucks with a cart and suasgae

John Wayne

Hey Caledonians - I've heard from a few (thru someone else in the office) regarding my strong comments on your desperate plight. 

This morning I mentioned it might come to the point of being one of those towns John Wayne would ride thru - nothing but him and a few bull-rushes.  My point being - with the senseless unrest - who would want to live there.  This is a perspective of an outsider looking in.  Reacting to yet another series of events that have led to even more questions and speculation regarding the stand-off in your community and it's seemingly endless continuence. 

Things NOT to do this weekend

If you're considering an outing this weekend - as a service, here's some things on the community calender YOU may want to avoid..

Abbamania.. If it was ABBA?  Yah the songs are catchy - but if you at the show - you the hair, make-up and outfits out of your head - Seventies sweedish fashion..  Can I be YORGON, I like his wide lapels and clogs     How about a MOVIE:  If you love Al Pacino - You'll hate 88 minutes.  Real Time is so 1^st season of 24.  The idea's dated and so is Al.. running around NY trying to find his killer before his killer kills him - withn the next 88 minutes.  Almost every review says Pacino called it in.

tissue please

Margaret McCarthy at a committee meeting the other night, was crying for Flamborough. Literally.  I heard tissues were required. WHY.   A tax hike is coming to the FLAM that'll be more then double the rest of Hamilton.

Here's where you see clearly why most of Flamborough wanted nothing to do with US.  When it came to joining the SUPER CITY..

They would have rather joined the Church of the Universe.

Flamborough knew there'd be a price - and her it comes.  200 dollars a year.  As Hamilton will NOW reap the cash rewards from all those Flamborough slots (for the first time)

No Faith for Tim and Faith

HECFI had Tim and Faith BUT no faith when it came to Tim and Faith fans..  The deal to bring a BIG time Country concert to Ivor wynne stadium - is - according to HECFI: Dead!!

According to city officials, it would cost $400,000 to bring the venue up to safety code for the event.

WHAT?????????????

Hamilton was one of only two Canadian dates this summer for the husband-and-wife duo. - no proof anywhere of that though - Soul2soul does not have anything on a Canadian Stage on McGraws Web-site.

DUNCAN for HECFI: "I'm awaiting a full report on where the $400,000 comes from, what it is for, and what options there might be," "They said apparently the stadium is safe for almost 30,000 people to watch a football game, but not 25,000 people to watch a concert, if 3,800 of them are (seated) on the field."

what if

BLOG BLOG BLOG BLOG

what IF TTC workers DID walk?  If you live and work in Hamilton.... Nothing - little (if any) impact...   WORK in Toronto (like 60 percent of Hamilton)  then, here's what would of happened: HELL.

Hell for everyone BUT the cabbie.

            You know when you see a cabbie parked next to another cabbie, and they're gabbing away...

Gabbie Cabbies.... WELL If the TTC went striking this morning - NO Gabbie Cabbies... It be fare after fare after fare...  one trip ends, another begins. 

Where's the Rain????

Chippn' away like an NBA underdog in the rock garden over the weekend.. Tis the season of KNICKS and SCRAPES and BUMPS...  and I'm not just talking about my three year old boy... (Kids a walking Bumper Car)

And I had the cloth garden gloves on most of the way..BUT,

These rocks have crevasses to snug for a chip-monk   gotta get your fingers in there.

There's a lot of satisfaction that comes from a job well done (a job you did with your fingers)..  there's so much detail to this garden - when you get up real close - you see there's this network of dips and wee craters, cracks and.. most important.. moss.

Volunteers

As promissed the results from the Volunteer Sports dinner last night

Great time

Honor to host - really was - great community Hamilton.  16oo people were there and as much as we appreciate them (for years of volunteering) they appreaciated the show - and the main guest Coach Wooten whose speech I cannot do justice BUT the winningest Coach in Highschool hoops history did say - Basketball is like life..  when you're down things won't turn around overnight...

"Yah have to chip away....   chip away"  Love it - great speaker - great guy...

Hello larry

Wasn't Larry the Cable guy the coolest this morning - For those who missed him - a rare re-air coming tomorrow morning at 6:45.

See everyone tonight at the Volunteer Sport Dinner.  Hope to have some funny stories about it.

I'll host with Al Craig at the convention center

TEE VEE

In researching the Q's for Eric McCormick on the Bravo Top 100 on TV All Time list.. I found the top 20 to actually be... well..  pretty accurate.

Tony Soprano is in the right spot, so is the fonz.  I might have slid Kirk from 9 into the top 5.. Trade em' clean for Homer.

 I would trade Mary Richards and Jim Rockford.  Leave Lucy alone.  Archie Bunker..  um..  ok for now BUT a future deal with him and Hawkeye is very possible.

Also... where the hell is Family Guy?  Peter Griffin may be to hip for this list.  It is Bravo though??

White Coats

The latest Mac Proff makes the  doctors of law on campus look like parking lot attendents...

Astronuaght Dave Williams (spent a decade at Johnson Space Center) And is now on the roster to teach and conduct research at MAC.

KOUDO'S to Pete George for locking this one up...

Ther's NOT much else known BUT an announcement about a NEW currently undefined opperation at McMaster will be made later this moring..

When I went to make (back in the days of Hairspray and painter pants.. there were NO astronughts - we had one guy that wrote a book, and I think over in the science department, a proff who invented the Lab Coat

Top Cop loves it OLD school

OPP commissionaire Julian Fantino... cruising along the hiway toward Cambridge Wednesday when some Cracker Jack License holder - some nutter - blows by him doing 170 k's per hour.

And Fantino - whose never one to pass up on an opportunity to do it OLD SCHOOL mid- 80's Streets of HogTOWN...  Throughs a cherry on top and calls it in...  Ontarios TOP copper in hot pursuit and eventually nabbing the hood with speeding, then a possession bonus... he's got for two years plus a day easy... give em' the old BAD-COP routine there at the shoulder too... had the mirror shades.. walked like he just had a hip replaced but didn't want anyone to know...  a great day for Fantino...

Road kill

A lot road kill piling up - Animals are coming out of Hibernation - some still in a slumber as they stroll out front your car (doing 60 or more... the car - not the animals.. they are slumbering)

Therefore:  MANY warning from Naturalists and others

BE ON THE LOOKOUT FOR WILD ANIMALS ON LOCAL AND RURAL ROADS.

In Hamilton - you see more deer on city streets then kids with skateboards.  (they like the road salt and find shoulders a great place to mate..

Also in the city: 9 raccoons per city block...  Garbage night they're into you cans like robbers...  (That's why they have the masks...)

How to avaoid pot holes